Best Photoshop Tutorials

How to create a worn urban-style text effect

by Sebastiano on 01/06/09 at 12:38 am

This tutorial will show you how to realize a worn-style text effect that can be placed on a grunge background. We will use blending options, free vectors and grunge brushes. As always you can download the psd file at the end of the post. Here’s a preview of the final image:

Final Image Preview:

Step 1 – The background

We start with a radial gradient. Open a 600×600 file,  right-click on the background layer and select “Blending Options”. Now apply a Gradient Overlay from #696767 to #111111. Download a free grungy paper texture (you can use zen texture or stock.xchng for this purpose); I suggest you to try different textures until you have the best result. Then paste the texture into the canvas, desaturate it (ctrl+shift+U) and switch the layer blend mode to overlay.

Step 2 – City vector

Download the Vector Buildings from QVectors, and paste the image of the buildings at the bottom of the canvas

Step 3 – Text

Now we can add some text. The font I have used is “excess”. I don’t know if it’s a default font, but I’m sure that is a free font. Simply use google to find a site where you can download the font for free or use a similar one. The font size is 87 pt, so If you want to obtain the same effect you have to use a size around 87 pt.

Step 4 – Layer Style

Lets add a grunge style to our text! The following screenshots will show you the blending options. I personally love to play with blending options, bacause you can obtain nice effects just with few clicks.

And this is the result. You can also download the psd file to simply copy and paste the layer style

Step 5 – Grunge effect

Select the text layer and add a layer mask. With the layer mask actived, you can use black brushes to hide some parts of the layer. So make sure to have black as foregorund color and use a grunge brush (you can download a free grunge brush here) to paint upon the text. This is a way to obtain the  worn effect. You could use the erase tool, but I prefer the mask one because I can always delete the mask and the effect disappears.

Step 6 – Shape tool

With white as foreground color, select the custom shape tool. Choose the shape showed in the following screenshot and draw the retro-looking background. Switch this layer style to overlay.

Step 7 – Mask again

Add a  mask to the last layer created and use a large soft black brush to erase the center of the shape

Step 8 – Finished!

At the end I have used a silhouette vector of a jumping lady to complete the work. OK…this is the final result:

Download PSD File (399)